No to Lithuania!!! Professor Tzvi Kulitz
It is because of the high regard in which I hold Lithuanian Jewry that I find myself absolutely rejecting its Christian counterparts.
Alytus (a post my late father held prior to the war) has been in my thoughts constantly
Lithuania is pariah state and it must remain as such. It must remain so because it is the one Christian state whose horrific treatment of the Jewish community was even worse than that of the Nazis. Lithuanian Christians even turned on the Jewish doctors who treated them selflessly. Such sadistic behavior is without parallel in the entire history of Nazi organized genocide. And the manner in which they murdered the last rabbi of ever since I first read about it. The local Lithuanian militia commander instructed his men to find the “sick old Rabbi” (his own words) and bring him that he could have the chance to “shoot him between the eyes.”
Why do I recall these events? I do so because the Lithuania of today seeks admission to NATO. Such membership will provide it with the platform from which to influence public opinion both in the international community and the United States, home to a substantial Lithuanian expatriate community. This must be prevented at all cost!
No nation under Nazi occupation demonstrated as much enthusiasm for killing Jews as that shown by Lithuania. Even in Ukraine, where local Jews were also massacred in their thousands by their neighbors, the intelligentsia generally did not join in the mass murders. By contrast, the educated classes in Lithuania were among the ringleaders of the mass genocide. Doctors, students, priests, journalists, army officers and individuals from other professions murdered Jews with alacrity even before the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941. Entire communities were destroyed by local militia volunteers. Indeed, Lithuanians were unique in the enthusiasm with which they set about the task of looking for Jews to kill wherever they could find them. What caused this seething hatred?
Some historians feel the murderers were driven by a desire for revenge against the Jews for their purported collusion with the Soviet regime. The role played by Jewish commissars was certainly one of the causes but could not, by any means be considered the primary factor behind the Lithuanians’ bloodthirsty desire for retribution. Despite their role in the Soviet administration, Jews fared little better than their Lithuanian counterparts during that period, with seven per cent of the Jewish population deported to Siberia compared to only three per cent of the Lithuanian population.
The real reason for the hatred runs much deeper. The late author and philosopher Abraham Kariv, whose publications included an abridged version of the writings of the Maharal of Prague, attributed the levels of cruelty and bestial excesses of Lithuanians to the divinity and saintliness of their Jewish victims. Such sanctity merely infuriated them further, driving them to commit acts of unspeakable barbarity.
Eight centuries ago, the Rambam had similar thoughts on the relationship between sanctity and devastation, as expressed in a letter to his son while visiting Eretz Israel. “He who is more saintly than his friend,” he claimed, “will surely feel the sword hovering over him.”
Should the members of NATO seriously consider admitting Lithuania to their ranks, Lithuanian Jewry must do all in its power to prevent it. This is one instance where protests and demonstrations may help. To allow Lithuania to join that select league of nations which never played any role in the spilling of Jewish blood, would be to turn a blind eye to the crimes committed against us. It is our sacred duty never to forget!!!